Dakar: car, fourth triumph for the Qatari Al-Attiyah

Nasser al-Attiyah, at the wheel of Toyota, won his fourth Dakar rally-raid by car, after those in 2011, 2015 and 2019, at the end of the 12th and last stage with the finish in Jeddah, the second largest city in Arabia Saudi.

    Winner of the prologue and of a stage, the Qatari driver beat the French Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive) by 27'46 "and the Saudi Yazeed al-Rajhi (Toyota) by 1h1'13".

    Leading from the early stages, Al-Attiyah has accumulated up to 48 minutes of advantage, to then manage it in the last few days, also thanks to the collaboration of the co-driver, Mathieu Baumel, in his third success in the legendary rally-raid. The 51-year-old from Qatar is a multifaceted sportsman: in fact, he won an Olympic medal in the skeet competition, the skeet shooting of the Olympic Games. The victory in the last stage went to the French Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi).

    In motorcycles, the 32-year-old Briton Sam Sunderland (GasGas) won his second Dakar, after the 2017 one in South America.

    He finished 3'27 "ahead of Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), winner of the final stage, and 6'47" seconds over Austrian Matthias Walkner (KTM). 

Sam Sunderland, 32, won his second Dakar rally-raid in the motorcycle category, after a first success in 2017 in South America. He preceded the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda) and the Austrian Matthias Walkner (KTM). First British motorcyclist to win the Dakar, Sunderland had gone close to an encore in 2019, then finishing 3 / o behind teammates Toby Price and Matthias Walkner, and again in 2021, when he came again 3 / o in the wake of Kevin Benavides and Ricky Brabec. After six editions disputed with the Red Bull KTM official team, he joined the GasGas official team. In a particularly eventful edition, Sunderland, leader of the general classification during the first week,he managed to take back the first place from his brother-in-law Adrien Van Beveren - Sunderland is married to the sister of the French driver - only on the eve of the finish. In the car category, Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah (Toyota) is expected to win his fourth Dakar after the successes of 2011, 2015 and 2019.